Breton Language - Geographic Distribution and Dialects

Geographic Distribution and Dialects

Breton is spoken mainly in Western Brittany, but also in a more dispersed way in Eastern Brittany (where Gallo is spoken alongside Breton and French), and in areas around the world that have Breton immigrants.

The four living dialects of Breton, as identified by Ethnologue, are (named in Breton) leoneg, tregerieg, gwenedeg, and kerneveg. In French these are respectively léonard spoken in the Breton county of Léon, trégorrois spoken in the Trégor, vannetais spoken around the city of Vannes, and cornouaillais spoken in the Breton Cornouaille). A fifth guérandais dialect was spoken up to the beginning of the 20th century in the region of Guérande and Batz-sur-Mer.

There are no clear boundaries between the dialects because they form a dialect continuum, varying only slightly from one village to the next. Compared to the other dialects, the Gwenedeg dialect is somewhat more distinct due to several pronunciation specificities.

Read more about this topic:  Breton Language

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